A brilliant piece of Cold War media. Yes, I mean that. Contextualized in the Atari 50 collection, the blurb that reads that designer Dave Theurer was inspired by nightmares of nuclear annihilation comes through loud and clear. Or maybe Theurer had nightmares as a result of designing and programming this one. Either way, Missile Command puts players in a no-win situation. Missiles rain down and players might choose the awful logic of protecting a few cities and their arsenal of missiles over having a full slate of cities. Setting a high score and earning an extra credit is easily doable after a few rounds, but avoiding the flashing light of "THE END"? Not so much.